Your video game hot take(s) thread

[Xprimentyl]

This less a hot take but more a feeling that my become a hot take, I dunno...
But I was skimming Polygons' review of Jusant and this phrase hit me hard when it was talking about the game's focus and simplicity:

" There’s no leveling here, no endgame, no customization, no meta goals to tick off."

I already bought the game because when it was advertised I already was interested and the reviews have been positive but specifically I'm do down for this whole minimalism thing.

Maybe here is hot take: why do I need "leveling" in a single player game? I mean... to be the level of non-human things? Just make the things good things to fight, or whatever. Or if not fighting, wtf I need numbers and stars for? At least for the type of games I play.
I'm loving Spiderman 2 but when it tells me I reached level 40 I'm like... so? Level 40 compared to what, I'm the only person playing this game.

I know I had a post a while back expressing reservations about this being one of the greatest years for gaming but if Cocoon and Jusant prove to sort of set a new standard for minimalistic, focused gaming experience, then I'll add my chorus to the praise.

Leveling in a single-player game, done correctly, is self-referencing. If you're at "level 40," you should objectively be bigger/better/faster/stronger (R.I.P. Daft Punk) than you were at "level 39," and the gameplay should reflect that with increased challenges and abilities as you progress.

That said, I'll piggy back on your gripe that I dislike games, single-player or otherwise, that don't make leveling from one arbitrary increment to the next satisfying. "Oooh, I busted my balls for an hour to go from level 39 to level 40 for a whole +2% to my defense? " I prefer games that reward your leveling up with something that make an immediate difference to the gameplay, i.e.: new weapons or abilities that affect gameplay noticeably.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Not that hot really. I'd put them a notch above NetherRealm. Though with Insomniac I'd say their biggest issue is just character design. Their go-to for hero and villain design is armor plating or body armor. And Peter, M.J., and Harry would look fine if they just added a pinch of flair to their look, but instead they look about as interesting as a 90's sitcom protagonist.

Ehh…

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[Drathnoxis]

This less a hot take but more a feeling that my become a hot take, I dunno...
But I was skimming Polygons' review of Jusant and this phrase hit me hard when it was talking about the game's focus and simplicity:

" There’s no leveling here, no endgame, no customization, no meta goals to tick off."

I already bought the game because when it was advertised I already was interested and the reviews have been positive but specifically I'm do down for this whole minimalism thing.

Maybe here is hot take: why do I need "leveling" in a single player game? I mean... to be the level of non-human things? Just make the things good things to fight, or whatever. Or if not fighting, wtf I need numbers and stars for? At least for the type of games I play.
I'm loving Spiderman 2 but when it tells me I reached level 40 I'm like... so? Level 40 compared to what, I'm the only person playing this game.

I know I had a post a while back expressing reservations about this being one of the greatest years for gaming but if Cocoon and Jusant prove to sort of set a new standard for minimalistic, focused gaming experience, then I'll add my chorus to the praise.

Because DnD did it, and you get a little dopamine rush every time the number goes up.

I agree with you, though. I would rather just have fights be balanced properly rather than being expected to maintain the narrow balance between being underleveled and overleveled.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

As far as I can tell, based on the clips from this video, no changes have been made to the game's script with the exception, as seen in the trailers, of renaming Toadstool 'Peach' as she is in every Mario game since Super Mario 64 Yoshi's Safari. That being the case, they'd better have renamed all the enemies with weird and incorrect names to what they should be, such as 'Terrapin' to 'Koopa Troopa' or 'The Big Boo' to just 'Boo'. Because otherwise, what's even the point of remaking a game if you're not even going to fix its most obvious, glaring issues?

That's rhetorical. I know what the point is.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

As far as I can tell, based on the clips from this video, no changes have been made to the game's script with the exception, as seen in the trailers, of renaming Toadstool 'Peach' as she is in every Mario game since Super Mario 64 Yoshi's Safari. That being the case, they'd better have renamed all the enemies with weird and incorrect names to what they should be, such as 'Terrapin' to 'Koopa Troopa' or 'The Big Boo' to just 'Boo'. Because otherwise, what's even the point of remaking a game if you're not even going to fix its most obvious, glaring issues?

That's rhetorical. I know what the point is.

Are these remakes still subject to the

Spoiler

?

 

[BrawlMan]

I actually think the Night Slashers Remake doesn't look too bad. Visually, I would have referred pixels, but I hope we get the option to select between the Remake look and the original look. Guardian Heroes did the same with its re-release on Xbox Live Arcade, and Capcom ended up doing the same for Ultra Street Fighter 2 HD Remix (Switch). The game is definitely at work in progress state. Another thing I noticed is that ever since Streets of Rage 4 released in 2020, a lot of these old brawlers franchises that are coming back just don't want to do pixels. I don't have a problem with it, but it's obviously everybody's trying to do their own thing visually to stand out. I can at least applaud them for that. There's still plenty of pixel brawlers on the Indy market, but it's understandable why certain developers are doing this.

​

 

[BrawlMan]

Here's another one from Seraphim17.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Here's a hot take: Kyle Katarn is an absolute Mary Sue, and he gets a pass because he's every white male Star Wars nerd's self-insert character writ large.

 

[BrawlMan]

Here's a hot take: Kyle Katarn is an absolute Mary Sue, and he gets a pass because he's every white male Star Wars nerd's self-insert character writ large.

I keep forgetting he even exists. Can we get a Star Wars game about the Yojimbo looking dude from the first Star Wars Visions? His story and most of the other stories are way more interesting whatever is going on in Star Souls.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Starting to realise being able to deduct the country of origin from just the videogame game title alone might mean am already far too deep into this nerd hobby to escape or at least in regards to UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II SYS:CELES. Grandma needs to be kept on her toes with prezzie buying somehow I suppose.

 

[BrawlMan]

Starting to realise being able to deduct the country of origin from just the videogame game title alone might mean am already far too deep into this nerd hobby to escape

View attachment 10152

I was deep into this Japanese shit since I was 3 years old! You don't get anymore Japanese when it comes to titles such as Devil May Cry, Killer Is Dead, Gungrave, or Bayonetta. Embrace them. Embrace Them!

 

[thebobmaster]

Are these remakes still subject to the

Spoiler

View attachment 10080

?

To be fair, that seal is often misunderstood. It wasn't saying that the game was good, just saying that the game would actually work.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

To be fair, that seal is often misunderstood. It wasn't saying that the game was good, just saying that the game would actually work.

Yeah but the joke was about there being several instances of mistranslations in some of their game, which would be reasonable to think should fall under their quality seal.

 

[BrawlMan]

Age of Calamity did more for the story, characters, and combat than either BoW and ToK. The only flaw with the game is that evil generic wizard that was hyped up in marketing and didn't amount to much in the overall story. AoC's other benefit is that the game is AU retelling where all of the heroes survive. It's a great game for those interested and one of the top Dynasty Warriors/Muso Spin-Offs. I long traded the game in, as Dynasty Warriors game don't do much for me when I complete them. I still have the save data, if I wanted to do so, I can comeback to where I left off.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

*sharpens catty halberd*
the real main reason critics hate games that are merely just 'ok' more than the polar extremes of awful to great, is they can't stand not being able to come up with enough words to talk about

 

[BrawlMan]

*sharpens catty halberd*
the real main reason critics hate games that are merely just 'ok' more than the polar extremes of awful to great, is they can't stand not being able to come up with enough words to talk about

They're nothing more than glorified click baiters. The same applies to the reactionaries and YouTube gaming critics out there as well.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

They're nothing more than glorified click baiters. The same applies to the reactionaries and YouTube gaming critics out there as well.

Some, sure, but also a bit generalizing and unfair.

Story time..
Back in college I was into the music scene, hung out with musicians and got some positive reaction to some writing and talking I did on the subject. But that was all out of genuine passion and not for money or anything. As soon as I was asked to write formal reviews, I hated it and got bored. There was a chasm of quality between me wanting to write about something that made me think and feel strongly vs just being expected to deliver content.

Games are 100x worse than music in terms of time-wasting. Playing one mediocre triple A game is like listening to 60 mediocre albums.

 

[BrawlMan]

Some, sure, but also a bit generalizing and unfair.

No, I'm not being unfair. I didn't say all of them, but there are a lot of them that do that. And it is not helpful to anybody, but themselves (even then not by much). Them doing that is actually doing harm to the medium than good. It means that something that is average is far more hated on than it's necessary, when they're going to forget about it within the next day or two and rage on about something else equally less important or mediocre.

Games are 100x worse than music in terms of time-wasting. Playing one mediocre triple A game is like listening to 60 mediocre albums.

Depends on what type of game you are playing. If it's the AAA space, expect a majority of that. Not all, but a majority. Once again, smaller games, Indie games, and AA usually kill it in this department. Besides, we still get plenty of video games with excellent music (that don't use already established and licensed songs unrelated to them okay) better than most mainstream albums and music or movies.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The "small/indy game is better than big AAA game" sentiment is seeping into my soul and brain actually. I mean I still, like before, insist on being agnostic about that and taking each game on its own. But now that we're at the end of the year and I'm on a major gaming break, I been thinking about what really hit me and what didn't and the fact that Cocoon, Jusante, Dredge and Hi-Fi Rush have lingered with me more than Spidey 2 and Jedi 2 (games I really did like) and FF16, Diablo 4, and AC: Mirage (games that disappointed me) is making more... I dunno, sympathetic with bias, I guess?

I'm making some ebay moves that will provide much fodder for discussion when I switch over to that other forum... should be fun

 

[BrawlMan]

The "small/indy game is better than big AAA game" sentiment is seeping into my soul and brain actually. I mean I still, like before, insist on being agnostic about that and taking each game on its own.

You can be agnostic all you want; it doesn't make what's going on currently any less true. As I stated a thousand times before, not all indie games are sunshine and rainbows, but even ones that fail at least try or don't try to screw the consumer over. The big games you like, there's nothing wrong with that. Still doesn't change the fact that the industry is pumping out mediocre titles a majority of the time. The only reason is not as bad now, is because there's nobody left to really screw over except going either further below the bar into negative space. But they're always be something around the corner that's worse than the last time. Not to mention all the layoffs, despite these games becoming successes or having great numbers. Or the layoffs only happen, because the big wigs at top didn't like the numbers they were getting or put way too much in a live service than necessary.

Cocoon, Jusante, Dredge and Hi-Fi Rush have lingered with me more than Spidey 2 and Jedi 2 (games I really did like) and FF16, Diablo 4, and AC: Mirage (games that disappointed me

Thank you. I will say with Spider-Man 2, everyone should've expected just more of the same, but more polished. I know people complained about the Mary Jane sections and the Non-spiderman stuff, but I don't care much. Mary Jane (not her looks, there's nothing wrong with her) sections I'll throw them a bone, but everything else is either optional, not that big a deal, or can be skippable. Nearly everything else on the list that involve big budget games screwed up and some type of way or launch with a buggy and broken game to start. When in reality it could have been delayed two or three more months to be mostly or all highly polished.

Hi-Fi Rush is a smaller game, but money was still poured into that. Apparently that game was in development pre-covid. As in, the middle of 2019, pre-covid.